Tag: Battle of Kings Mountain

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The Battle of Musgrove’s Mill, 1780

BOOK REVIEW: The Battle of Musgrove’s Mill, 1780 by John Buchanan (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2022) British victory in the Revolution required one thing above all: the ability of American Loyalists to retake and hold the civil and military functions of government. Then as now, occupying armies are expensive and cannot stay forever. In this light, […]

by Gabriel Neville
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Patriots and Politics, Redcoats and Reconstruction: General Nathanael Greene’s Grand Southern Strategy

Major General Nathanael Greene’s military career presents a paradox to historians: how could a Quaker, unlearned in the art of war, become one of America’s foremost Revolutionary War generals? While historians have extensively studied Greene’s exercise of tactics and operations, Greene’s formulation and execution of grand strategy—the linking of economic, governance and security objectives with […]

by H. Allen Skinner
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The British Entry Into, and Occupation of Charlotte, September 26 to October 14, 1780

The first objective in Lt. Gen. Earl Cornwallis’s first invasion of North Carolina was the capture of Charlotte. He intended to establish a post there, not only to control adjacent territory, but also to facilitate his communication with the south as he advanced farther. At daybreak on September 7, 1780, accompanied by two 3-pounders, Cornwallis […]

by Ian Saberton
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Searching for Samuel’s Service: Stories of the Revolution Revealed Through One Man

The American Revolution was perhaps America’s first civil war—a dispute that forced neighbors to choose between country and King; to declare themselves Patriots or Loyalists. Modern Americans might be tempted to only focus on the Patriots’ side of events, but I have discovered that by investigating the Loyalists, an ensemble of characters with connections to […]

by Sarah Swift
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William “Bloody Bill” Cunningham and the Bloody Scout

On or about November 19, 1781, a Loyalist officer named William Cunningham and his regiment of approximately three hundred men rode toward Hayes Station, a fortified log home, or “blockhouse,” in the Little River District, surrounding western South Carolina’s Little River primarily in what is now Laurens County, South Carolina.[1] Now commanding the outpost was […]

by Andrew Waters
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A Demographic View of North Carolina Militia and State Troops, 1775–1783

After nearly a quarter of a millennium, what do we really know about the militia and state troops that served during the Revolutionary War? Historians and researchers over the past century have dedicated entire volumes to addressing this question with numerous publications of militia rosters. While this research has proven invaluable, what does it really […]

by Douglas R. Dorney, Jr.
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The Battle of Shallow Ford, October 14, 1780

In September 1780, writing from Hillsborough, North Carolina, just one month after the disastrous defeat at Camden, Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates penned a disconcerted letter to Thomas Jefferson, the then governor of Virginia, broadly sketching the situation in the colonial South: “Should Wilmington in this State and Portsmo[uth] in Yours, be the posts they intend […]

by Travis Copeland
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Patrick Ferguson and His Rifle

Maj. Patrick Ferguson’s rifle is one of the most interesting and significant early attempts at a breech-loading service rifle. Coupling a screw breech plug with rifling, Ferguson’s rifle was said to be capable of an impressive seven rounds per minute. Most importantly it has the distinction of being the first breech-loading rifle adopted for service […]

by Matthew Moss
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Loyalist Leadership in the Revolutionary South

The historical debate concerning the Loyalists in the Revolutionary South has generally focused on matters such as the Loyalists’ numbers and motivations. While these are issues deserve study, one aspect of the Loyalists’ role in the southern campaign has received far less attention: that of leadership. The British government’s “Southern Strategy” depended to a great […]

by Jim Piecuch